Time to Update the Alabama Line
Time to update the Alabama Line, a consensus take from insiders on who has what shot of winning various upcoming races in Alabama. You can see the Alabama Line in the right sidebar.
The folks in the back room will step away from the Lawn-Boys and Toros long enough to reconsider the issue (best not to have these discussions with tools at hand especially if you have been working over any gas fumes), and I’ll ask some of the best folks I know on both sides of the aisle about this.
And I would be glad to hear from you in comments or directly. Your reasoned input would be appreciated and added to the mix. Who has been left off the list that should be put on? Who should be taken off? Who has a better or worse shot at winning than the Alabama Line now shows? Do you see a name that should move up or down relative to someone else’s?
You can see previous comments here.
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I would say moving Troy King down and Luther Strange up on the Governor’s rankings seems to make sense. King has been unable to shake his previous scandals, which include questionable dealings with Roy Johnson. Ironically, if the two year college scandal energizes Republicans on the issue of reform in state government, which it appears to be doing, King suffers based upon his ties to the scandal and his having to leave the investigation totally.
Strange, on the other hand, has made an impressive effort of staying in the news, despite holding no public office. He seems to be working on strengthening his ties within the Republican Party, which will serve him well, particularly in the Huntsville area where he under performed during the general election. One need only ask the rank and file Republicans who had questions about voting for Strange in the general election if they have any buyer’s remorse after Jim Folsom’s actions in the Senate to see that the interparty problems that previously hurt Strange are quickly fading away.
Folsom, on the other hand, by using dubious legal reasoning to break the Senate logjam, has offended Republican voters in all corners of the party, meaning that his guise as a moderate will not play as well in the future. While he may be the candidate most likely to win the Democratic nomination, I have very little doubt Artur Davis, who will run away with the African American vote in the Democratic primary, will give the Lieutenant Governor a run for his money. If Sparks, Davis, and Folsom all run, expect a runoff.
Comment by Anonymous — June 6, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
Troy King is not Governor material. Luther Strange will run for AG regardless of where Troy
goes. On the Republican side, it will be Kay Ivey for Governor and Mike Hubbard for Lt. Gov.
Comment by Henry — June 6, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
Luther Strange has never held elected office and is not considered a viable candidate by any means in Republican circles.
Kay Ivey is definitely eyeing higher office, and she seems to be the heir of the Riley crowd’s blessing. However, she may take a cue from her predecessor in the Treasurer’s office, Lucy Baxley, and make a run for Lieutenant Governor first.
As for Seth Hammett, it is obvious he has little if any higher political aspirations. I believe Mr. Speaker is content to remain in the legislature for as long as he chooses.
Comment by John — June 6, 2007 @ 8:54 pm
If you’re going to update the text, can you also update the image as well? It’s not that great. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Alabama.svg is a better looking flag and doesn’t have a copyright on it that you can edit.
Comment by Lurker — June 7, 2007 @ 1:23 pm
Lurker, lol… actually, believe it or not, I’ve received compliments on the image. Do you dislike the whole design? Or is the design fine by you, but you don’t like this particular implementation? Like, for example, the curious double lines on the bottom and right edges?
Or…?
Comment by Danny — June 7, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
The design is, I will say, inspired. The state flag was perfect for that and the graph permutation is great.
My complaint is that the proportions are off, or at least according to ( http://www.ago.state.al.us/oldopinions/8700238.pdf ) (Sorry the best opinion I could get was from him!). Also, if you used the SVG and then just convert it to a PNG, you wont have nearly as much trouble with poor rendering.
Comment by Lurker — June 11, 2007 @ 1:15 pm